Parthian Shot

by Loyd Little

Book by Loyd Little

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

289 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with a BA in Journalism in 1962. Won the Pen Hemingway Award for first novel.

Reviews

[Steven Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

PARTHIAN SHOT is a novel written by Vietnam-era Special Forces veteran Loyd Little. It follows the exploits of a group of Green Berets attached to a CIDG camp near the Cambodian border and how they make do while the big Army forgets they are there.

This plot sets up for some of the richest character writing I've seen in a while. There is Phil Warren, the narrator, bac si (Vietnamese for "doctor") and the saintly doctor who walks on water. You have Top, who is a coarse, old-school soldier with a racist mouth and a heart of gold. There's Hood, the white intel sergeant who believes that he is black, and Santee, the black supply sergeant who thinks he's Asian. And then you have Cranston, a streetwise soldier who missed the beatnik generation by a decade or so who has truly taken to living amongst the Hoa Hao.

There are parts that read like an action novel, and other parts that read like a dark comedy. Throughout, it actually shows the advantage of Green Berets actually following their mission statement and waging unconventional warfare, acting as force multipliers and living amongst the indigenous population. All of this comes to head with the titular Operation Parthian Shot, which reads very much like a Mametian confidence game.

The ending...I won't spoil it, except to say that it is short and it is a massive gut shot that will leave the reader setting the book down and shaking their head.

An amazing book, rumored in certain circles to be fact told through fiction. I cannot recommend strongly enough.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderfully personal - and fictional - story about the craziness that was the Vietnam War, from opportunistic business ventures and leeches in unexpected places, to the sadness of lives and homes lost. While some of the language is racist, the dialog sounds authentic to the times.

[Thrillers R Us · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following the near career-ending and financially disastrous HEAVEN'S GATE, director Michael Cimino took the reins of a project putting former NYPD deputy commissioner John Daley's seventh novel with the once sizzling hot but now forgettable Mickey Rourke to celluloid. In itself a box office failure, YEAR OF THE DRAGON features a trophied up Vietnam War Vet NYPD Captain working the Chinatown district, drawn into a drug war with the Triads and the Italian Mob. Though fairly distant from the explosive violence of the drug drenched Golden Triangle formed by Burma, Thailand, and Laos, the Mekong Delta was impacted by illicit activity that financed America's enemy. While the Vietnam War certainly had its reputation of pervasive drug (ab)use among the enlisted, Special Forces life in the Mekong Delta during the early years of the second Indochina War was laissez faire, but not that laissez faire. Ruling with an iron fist, the Delta had two seasons, rainy and dry, where even December still strutted with 90 degree heat. PARTHIAN SHOT delves into the Year of the Dragon, 1964, and during that lead soaked summer the rains fell more than usual in the Mekong Delta.

Rather than sitting smack dab at the Mekong River, the small and motley Special Forces Team who headlines PARTHIAN SHOT ply their trade close the Bassac River, the tail end of which feeds right into the South China Sea, running south all the way from Phnom Penh and parallel to the mighty Nine Dragons River. Marking time at the end of their six month stint, these Green Berets are taking care of a small village of about 500, the name of which allows for rather interesting phonetic pronunciation; Nan Phuc. Deep in a phased and combined military and civilian counterinsurgency effort to curb VietCong presence and activity in Vietnam's rice bowl, the marooned Americans are about to DEROS and await confirmation from the Team Sergeant just back from Saigon. Official word, however, was that they already went home and are no longer IN COUNTRY. Somewhat borrowing from M*A*S*H, they became the pros from Dover, so to speak, and took it easy and focused on a few scattered patrols, creating a small company to make (fake) war souvenirs, sell stocks, help with rice harvests and transport the haul by ship. PARTHIAN SHOT is not so much the comic look at the Vietnam War that the dust jacket promises, like CATCH 22 or SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, although there is levity and deep critical thought about the war.

Detailing the hypocritical nature of the Army, hurry up and wait, and the extortionist rank and performance structure, PARTHIAN SHOT revels in personalities that defy the rules, get things done, and fight a conflict at the precipice of exploding into a full scale War. Among the chaos and the VietCong, the soldiers engage is shenanigans like water skiing, using local labor to craft fabricated war memorabilia, and run game on stick in the mud regular Army brass much like the "CIA effect" of the 2017 penned THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER. Hailing from the mid 1970s, PARTHIAN SHOT is not all rice balls and Tiger Balm, offering interesting perspectives of the Vietnam War, geo politics as well a fun concepts like alternate eventualities and comparative peace. Exciting, adventurous, explosive, and daring, PARTHIAN SHOT copes with the heavy thread and still sore subject of the Vietnam War via humor and high spirits, reminding everyone that there are real people in the mud and no one gets out of here alive. Dive into the 60s, the Mekong Delta and the Vietnam War, and watch the Snake Eaters--the best defense is a good offense, even if it's a PARTHIAN SHOT.

[Thing Two · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Vietnam war books go, this one ranks right up there. Reminded me a cross between Dispatches and the old China Beach TV show, except there were no U.S. women. If you're a history buff, war buff, 60's buff, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Since I'm not, I'll give it 3.5 stars. Good writing, and engaging enough to keep me turning pages, even though I'm not a fan of war books.